Youth News

John Deere Celebrates Its 75-Year Partnership with the FFA with $75K Community Engagement Grant

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 12:48:31 CDT

To commemorate 75 years of partnership with the National FFA Organization, John Deere is providing a $75,000 contribution to the FFA Living to Serve Platform. The funds are in addition to the wide range of support for FFA activities already sponsored by Deere.

Sam Allen, Deere & Company chairman and CEO, announced the contribution at the 91st National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, where he was a keynote speaker. He took a moment after his presentation of the $75,000 check to speak with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays about the company’s contributions, both past and present, to the FFA and where Deere & Co. is headed in the future.

“The Living to Serve Platform inspires FFA members to put leadership into action through service activities and prepare them to be responsible leaders in agriculture and many other professions in the future,” said Allen.

The Deere contribution provides support for FFA chapters to build stronger communities through various service projects that address environmental responsibility, hunger, health and nutrition, community safety, and community engagement.

“We thank John Deere for their generous contribution and are excited to see where the next 75 years lead our organizations and the future of agriculture,” said Mark Poeschl, Chief Executive Officer, National FFA Organization.

John Deere is the longest-running corporate sponsor of FFA and is celebrating that partnership with the grant and with the presentation of a time capsule containing 75 items donated by FFA members, reflecting the past, present and future of FFA, John Deere, and the agriculture industry. The time capsule will be retained at the National FFA Organization headquarters in Indianapolis and opened by FFA members in 2093.

Since it first made a $1,000 contribution in 1943, John Deere has provided funds totaling more than $13 million to the National FFA Organization. Deere sponsors a wide range of FFA activities, including a John Deere dealer scholarship program, the farm business management career development competition, and the international leadership seminar for state officers.

In 2014, Deere was one of the first corporate partners to form an FFA Alumni and Supporters Chapter. Today, approximately 400 employees from Deere facilities across the U.S. volunteer to coach, mentor and train FFA chapters.

Earlier this year, Deere introduced FFA members to potential careers through a virtual field trip to Waterloo Tractor Cab & Assembly Operations in Waterloo, Iowa. The event was live-streamed to FFA classrooms in 49 U.S. states, Canada, Algeria, and Rwanda, attracting more than 44,000 students and educators.

In addition, Allen says John Deere is working to prepare itself for the future of agriculture and to position itself in a manner so that it will be able to continue to help farmers be their most productive. He says since 2012, the field of precision agriculture has grown at an exponential pace. He says John Deere has recognized that this is the future of the ag industry and is shifting its focus to keep up with innovation that is happening all around us.

“Certainly, we think the company is moving more and more from being about just the iron and more and more about the technology,” he said. “We are literally at the point where we’re going from managing a farm to managing a field to managing a plot to managing a plant. The ability to take 1,000 acres and manage it plant by plant is the technology that is coming into play and John Deere is investing heavily to be ready to support farmers in doing that.”

One again, we are taking pictures in and around the 2018 National FFA Convention- click or tap here to check out the National Convention Album on FLICKR. By the way- we continue a tradition as several state officers of the Oklahoma FFA will be taking pictures for us during the course of the meeting.

Our exclusive coverage of the 2018 National FFA Convention in Indianapolis October 24-27 is a service of ITC Great Plains, Your Energy Superhighway- learn more about this high voltage, transmission only utility and their commitment to the communities they serve which is the cornerstone of their business - Click or tap here for their webpage. We also appreciate the support of the Oklahoma FFA Association and the Oklahoma FFA Alumni Association. Click or tap here for more information about one of the top states in the US in the FFA- the Oklahoma FFA Association. FFA is a student organization for high school-aged students interested in agriculture and leadership. Oklahoma FFA impacts the lives of over 27,000 members in 359 chapters across the state.